Truth is no one really knows the issue and it's conjecture (even on my part). If the software fix that's coming soon doesn't fix the issue then it is a hardware issue.

The big mistake that Apple made was to tellpeople they're holding it the wrong way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by noexpectations

This just reminds me that Apple is still a relatively new cell phone manufacturer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BartBuzz

If this story is right, and I hope it is, look at all the time spent and wasted on this topic over the past two days.

At least the iPhone haters had their fun. Hopefully, the iPhone faithful will have the last laugh.

I admit maybe I was caught up in some of the "hysteria". However, I have to agree with str1f3 that the big f*** up was Apple saying "you're holding it wrong". There's very little excuse for that, whatever the case.

I dropped by the Apple store to do a little experiment for my own benefit and to check out the iPhone 4. First:

It's beautiful. The screen looks awesome, the interface is snappy, and the camera rocks, even in the fluorescent lighting of the Apple store. Protip: it's really fun to scroll through the camera memory to see all the people who took pictures of themselves.

What I did:

I walked around to the iPhone displays (12 of them) and held each phone deliberately trying to cause the problem. I held the phone in my left hand with the seam directly in my palm. I held each phone there for about a minute, sometimes less if the issue arose faster than that. I did not make any calls, and I relied only on the meter to tell me if the reception went away.

Results:

The signal dropped to one bar on all 12 of the phones. The signal never dropped to "No Signal". Because I did not attempt to make any phone calls, I do not know if this caused the call quality to be bad or diminished at all.

I also asked some people who were beside me to hold the phone in the same way. Sure enough, they saw the bars go away as well.

Conclusions:

There definitely is an issue. Since I only tested phones from one Apple store, it could have just been that this Apple store got a bad batch. An apple employee mentioned that the problem may have been related to a certain build week. Generally, retail employees are full of crap though.

I wouldn't advise you to run back to the store and demand your money back. It is possible that a software update on Monday will fix these woes. However, it is also possible that this is a hardware problem, so if you haven't already ordered one, I'd advise you to hold off, or order one with caution.

Obviously, this wasn't a scientific test. But for me, it was enough evidence for me to hold off on ordering an iPhone 4.

Could it be that Apple, knowing that an unlock for iOS 4.0 is going to be released within hours of it's official public release, deliberately crippled the baseband in order to draw the unlock out and dissect it, fix the backdoor and release it with the baseband which doesn't have the drop outs, leaving the jailbreak community to wait for a new unlock to be found?

[Putting Tin Foil Helmet Back On]

That's not an outlandish theory. However right now iOS4.0 is un-jailbreak-able on iPhone4 and iPhone3GS, let alone un-unlockable. Apple 1, Hackers 0. As of the moment. So the current firmware and baseband on iPhone4 and 3GS is (publicly) uncrackable.

...because so many people have bought the iPhone globally and know that it is a non-issue.
...
All I can say is that I own an iPhone 4 and I don't have the issue, I am extremely satisfied with it and everyone I know who owns one loves it.

Time will tell.

Apple itself admits it's an issue and that the problem can be solved by covering the antenna with plastic, i.e., a bumper case or similar.

Every other phone on the market today (including previous gen iPhones) already come with plastic "coverings" for their antennas, i.e., the actual plastic bodies of the phones.

The iPhone 4 has the dubious distinction of being the first cell phone where "some assembly is required."

...because so many people have bought the iPhone globally and know that it is a non-issue.

It is still amazing to me how Apple can uniquely bring out so much passion out of people for it's products.

Everyone wants one...
Competitors are scared to death...
Bashers are grabbing a straws to find flaws...

All I can say is that I own an iPhone 4 and I don't have the issue, I am extremely satisfied with it and everyone I know who owns one loves it.

Time will tell.

AppleSauce. You are an idiot. This issue is FRONT PAGE of all major newspapers and even NBC NIGhTLY NEWS took a pretty nasty swipe at Apple's little "problem." It's a big deal applesauce, catch a clue. MORON.

THE BUMPERS AREN'T WORKING!!!!!! How loud do I have to shout this? Read other forums... a case or the bumpers "ain't" gonna help you.

Do you have a link? I didn't realize that the bumpers weren't working either Guess it's better that all of the Apple Stores in my area are completely out of them anyway -- and I also really didn't want to spend $30 plus tax to fix Apple's design flaw.

And another thing I take offense too -- why is the title of this article saying "Death Grip Hysteria". If the problem is real, and people are affected by it, why make it seem like consumers are the ones stirring up trouble? It doesn't make sense.

THE BUMPERS AREN'T WORKING!!!!!! How loud do I have to shout this? Read other forums... a case or the bumpers "ain't" gonna help you.

I'm not so sure...I can consistently get the signal to drop to nothing. However I've just folded some paper into two and bent it around the left corner, and the signal won't drop at all. Depends whether the rubber bumper has the same effect?

AppleSauce. You are an idiot. This issue is FRONT PAGE of all major newspapers and even NBC NIGhTLY NEWS took a pretty nasty swipe at Apple's little "problem." It's a big deal applesauce, catch a clue. MORON.

This is exactly what Applesauce is talking about. All the bashing that is going on. Do you call people idiots and Morons to their face? I agree with Applesauce on all accounts except for the fact that there is not a problem. I'm just not sure how big the problem is. I ran Speedtest while holding the iPhone in the "incorrect" position and while I saw the bars go down, my upload/download speeds stayed consistent. I have had no dropped calls "yet". To me iPhone 4 is one sweet phone and I'm not saying that because I'm a fan boy, just a fan of good technology. I know Apple/Steve Jobs are not perfect but they make great products IMHO.

THE BUMPERS AREN'T WORKING!!!!!! How loud do I have to shout this? Read other forums... a case or the bumpers "ain't" gonna help you.

Do you have a iPhone 4 and have tested this yourself ? I have and I can insulate the problem area with a piece of tissue paper and the bars return. So I would assume the bumpers will work. I have one coming today, I had actually ordered one before the problem was identified, and I can post the results.

And another thing I take offense too -- why is the title of this article saying "Death Grip Hysteria". If the problem is real, and people are affected by it, why make it seem like consumers are the ones stirring up trouble? It doesn't make sense.

Because "Daniel" is a paid PR flack for Apple, and this is not some journalistic endeavor. It's his job to attack anybody who threatens Apple's reputation and it's his job to promote whatever is in Apple's best interests,

It's a pity that Apple Insider doesn't feel it's necessary to declare that its "contributors" are not impartial, but heck, this stuff generates huge numbers of clicks and gosh, it's only the traffic that makes AI viable. And more than that, if you can't work this stuff for yourself, it's really not AppleInsider's job to do it for you.

However, it's worth repeating that nothing written by Daniel Eran Dilger, Slash Lane, Prince McLean and sundry others is unbiased. It's the same well paid Apple-supported rort. And if that's what you're happiest hearing, enjoy.

But it isn't impartial, and is at the least disingenuous. I'd go so far as to say he's actually a liar if I thought that I wouldn't get banned or whatever the punishment is for criticizing the favored contributors.

Whatever, Daniel Prince John Slash is producing too many words to be other than somebody doing this for a living. About time AppleInsider came clean about this.

AppleSauce. You are an idiot. This issue is FRONT PAGE of all major newspapers and even NBC NIGhTLY NEWS took a pretty nasty swipe at Apple's little "problem." It's a big deal applesauce, catch a clue. MORON.

My God man, this is exactly what I mean when I talk about passion for Apple products. The iPhone 4 has been front page news well before it was ever announced or released. There has always been praises and slanders, so nothing new there. The bottom line is that people are seeing, buying and using the iPhone 4 for themselves and continue to vote with their credit cards.

The indisputable fact remains that after overwhelming pre-orders of the iPhone 4, the huge waiting lines to buy the Apple product are still overflowing across malls and streets all over the world where it has been available for several days.

Evidently even the bashers are passionate as they hopelessly try to tare the bonds between Apple and their fans.

Call me what you want, but the final "Non-Issue" verdict is being passed all over the world with credit cards right now. If the world says it's a "non-Issue", it's a "non-issue". The iPhone 4 will not be redesign and it will remain the most popular smart phone in the world because it's a "non-issue".

There are insulating seams between the external antennas on the iPhone 4. The antennas are clearly not meant to be connected electrically, otherwise Apple wouldn't have put the seams there.

Skin conducts. It doesn't even have to be "sweaty." The only reason the iPhone's capacitive touchscreen works is because your fingers conduct electricity, and they aren't always sweaty, right?

So, by holding the phone in the most natural, obvious way, you are circumventing the insulation that Apple's engineers put between the antennas.

It's no wonder this is a problem and I don't see how any amount of software patching is going to fix it.

More interesting is why only some people experience the problem, and why others experience it intermittently. Is it possible that Apple put an insulating laminant on some of the antennas and not others? Maybe the signal drop has to do with the interaction between both antennas, e.g., it will only happen if wifi or Bluetooth is enabled/active.

It's a shame that so many people are taking the time to make YouTube videos about the problem and post on message boards, but don't seem curious enough to take a multimeter and measure the conductivity of the steel band, or try bridging the seams with different RF features enabled/disabled, etc. etc.

Clearly, you don't understand it at all

1. Take a regular multimeter and measure the resistance between the sides of the gap. Guess what, it's already very small, almost a short. Apparently, the resistance of the electrical circuit is already very low, much lower than your hand.

2. No, the capacitive touch screen does not require your fingers to be conductive. Take any thin plastic film, or tape, and touch the screen through it.

You see, somehow I think that Apple engineers understand the issue just a little bit better than all the backseat drivers on this forum.

To determine whether this is just a problem with the software measurement of the signal strength, I tested the actual data throughput speed in both unheld and held states. The impact of holding the iPhone in your hand is SEVERE, cutting up/down speeds to a fraction of their unheld potential. Here are the results.

Maybe/hopefully this can be fixed in software, but it's not just about measurement in the UI, nor is it a typical issue that affects all phones.

Nice try but you're forgetting one thing... that test is run on a phone that has a problem. A speed test is only going to be using the connection the system allows it to so if the system is monitoring things incorrectly and affecting the signal then the problem will flow to anything that uses that connection.

Therefore your test does nothing to determine if the problem is hardware or software.

Yeah, flawless. I dont sit here and bitch about little "issues" which are really non-issues. Mine has worked well beyond my expectations.

Well said, I totally agree. Certain people seem to be making a blogging career out of wanting Apple to have a major problem don't they? I have to think they will be very disappointed when this blows over and sales are through the roof.

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

This loss of signal that is happening (according to this article) has to do with the switching from one spectrum to another on ATT. It seems to be happening in England too. However, not in Germany. Do the carriers in England use the same two parts of the spectrum that ATT does?

Also-- if it is an issue of reporting signal, what does it matter if there is no signal (once one touches the phone)? One still can't make a call, correct?

Also-- while touching it is WiFi data speed affected?

Hope Springs Eternal,

Mandricard
AppleOutsider

This is an interesting point because England got the 1st Gen iPhone but I don't think Germany did. That would mean that England must have something like EDGE whereas Germany and other countries that didn't receive the 1st Gen iPhone don't. As a result they would be using different frequencies.

1. Take a regular multimeter and measure the resistance between the sides of the gap. Guess what, it's already very small, almost a short. Apparently, the resistance of the electrical circuit is already very low, much lower than your hand.

2. No, the capacitive touch screen does not require your fingers to be conductive. Take any thin plastic film, or tape, and touch the screen through it.

You see, somehow I think that Apple engineers understand the issue just a little bit better than all the backseat drivers on this forum.

Backseat drivers ... "The less they know the less there is they don't know that they don't know."

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

Yeah but he does not need to own a dictionary to know what the word flawless means.

well yes he does
yet no he does not

a true egg cream drink is where the spoon is always upside down when releaseing the soda water into the choc milk mix

ireland did a 40 post troll whine that rival mactrip and teckstud worst days here

yet he does even not own one
ireland does not own a OIS4 phone so when he comment'S like 8 x ok
but hijacking topic after topic to call out and say look at me i am injured .. steve killed with this crap phone
i am ashamed to even have ever loved apple >>>>

apple took in 400.000. successful connections for the iphone4 with no real headaches . clients did not flood aapl with complaint calls
except of course the over loaded san fran and nyc markets had troubles yesterday ////
everyday

using a bumper or holding the phone in a changed manner could solve these head aches
if not then return your phone

apple knew about this .. ok so steve give out 20 million 30 ct bumpers for free
this is a unique to apple problem ... yes it is .. its 4 problem iN fact
one set will go away with software workarounds
#3 will be problematic like the f..ing glare on my mac and my plasma tv
#4 ATT really has a tiny bullt tower system country wide
verizon has a massive 5 state metro area built out from south balt to north boston which mean 110 million east coast get great verizon coverage . rock solid
verizon calls go thru nyc skycraper walls in many cases .

ATT like sprint like t mobile are weak on the hardware and count on SW tricks to boost its ppor signals in bulilt up cities ...

so please don't cry the iphone has had shit calls in nyc since day one
i will wait for verizon
fuck ATT
but i won't buy something and then cry
and i won't cry about something i did not even buy
ireland had a med free meltdown yesterday
his head grew so big that he feels he was the star
mac tripper come home

This is an interesting point because England got the 1st Gen iPhone but I don't think Germany did. That would mean that England must have something like EDGE whereas Germany and other countries that didn't receive the 1st Gen iPhone don't. As a result they would be using different frequencies.

Say, aren't you a kiwi? If I'm wrong, then my apologies.

But if so, nice to nail the Welshmen but pity round two wasn't as definitive, huh. Cowen was off song. Thank the good lord for Piri Weepu eh?

AppleSauce. You are an idiot. This issue is FRONT PAGE of all major newspapers and even NBC NIGhTLY NEWS took a pretty nasty swipe at Apple's little "problem." It's a big deal applesauce, catch a clue. MORON.

You think being front page news is a scientific measure of truth and accuracy AND you call Applesauce a *moron?

*personally I am getting sick of people using insults on this forum, I am quoting you not calling you one.

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

ireland did a 40 post troll whine that rival mactrip and teckstud worst days here

yet he does even not own one
ireland does not own a OIS4 phone so when he comment'S like 8 x ok
but hijacking topic after topic to call out and say look at me i am injure

Are you sure? I truly believed and assumed he did since he almost single handedly insulted anyone with one saying it worked fine! Surely you are mistaken, he would not base all his vitriol and attacks on hearsay and media that was itself feeding of blogs ... that would be a feed-back loop of massive proportions!

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

My God man, this is exactly what I mean when I talk about passion for Apple products. The iPhone 4 has been front page news well before it was ever announced or released. There has always been praises and slanders, so nothing new there. The bottom line is that people are seeing, buying and using the iPhone 4 for themselves and continue to vote with their credit cards.

The indisputable fact remains that after overwhelming pre-orders of the iPhone 4, the huge waiting lines to buy the Apple product are still overflowing across malls and streets all over the world where it has been available for several days.

Evidently even the bashers are passionate as they hopelessly try to tare the bonds between Apple and their fans.

Call me what you want, but the final "Non-Issue" verdict is being passed all over the world with credit cards right now. If the world says it's a "non-Issue", it's a "non-issue". The iPhone 4 will not be redesign and it will remain the most popular smart phone in the world because it's a "non-issue".

Time will tell.

What is amazing is watching the blogs get picked up my the mainstream media and the blogs quoting the mainstream media and the loop accelerating. This is only possible with such a news worthy and high profile company such as Apple, never the less it is a lesson in media psychology isn't it? You can almost hear the howling feedback in the posts !

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

Chopper you're a retard. What did Daniel do to you did he run off with your girlfriend/wife?

I like Daniel's articles because unlike your drivel and most tech writers Daniel's articles have research behind them.

Oh and I take the retard comment back... they are infinitely smarter than you.

Ouch.

Apparently you weren't reading what I wrote, but heck lowededwookie, don't worry.

What I wrote is absolutely true. It takes one to know one, as they say, and I'm in the same business your hero Daniel, aka Prince McLean, John Gruber blah blah blah.

The "research" you allude to is whatever Apple supplies him in order to deliver the most effective attack. But in reality, it doesn't mean much research is required because folk like you are happy to swallow whatever he writes.

I'm sorry to say but to all your Americans, having a fit over the "death grip", you are all stupid.

Stop over-reacting to silly little made up problems, silly girls!

Well some of us Americans are not drinking the DroolAid. Remember the majority of trolls are probably holding their 'wanna be iPhone' copies from what ever manufacturer (that mocked virtual key boards not long ago) and hating Apple because they can't afford one or are so Anti-Apple due to their pro PC stance. They grasp at any straw to bash Apple on a blog ... once they have waited for the latest update to their Kaspersky and rebooted ten times that is.

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

Because "Daniel" is a paid PR flack for Apple, and this is not some journalistic endeavor.

I don't suppose you have any proof of this accusation. I realize that it's par for the course to just throw out unsubstantiated bullshit on forums and call it 'fact', but I'd say more than just your opinion would be in order here. How do you know Daniel isn't simply an Apple user/expert giving his honest opinion on things?

Quote:

It's a pity that Apple Insider doesn't feel it's necessary to declare that its "contributors" are not impartial, but heck, this stuff generates huge numbers of clicks and gosh, it's only the traffic that makes AI viable. And more than that, if you can't work this stuff for yourself, it's really not AppleInsider's job to do it for you.

While we're discussing pities, let's discuss the pity that people can declare things about people and make accusations and feel no need to back it up with anything of substance.

Quote:

However, it's worth repeating that nothing written by Daniel Eran Dilger, Slash Lane, Prince McLean and sundry others is unbiased. It's the same well paid Apple-supported rort. And if that's what you're happiest hearing, enjoy.

Well at least this is opinion and is stated as such.

Quote:

But it isn't impartial, and is at the least disingenuous. I'd go so far as to say he's actually a liar if I thought that I wouldn't get banned or whatever the punishment is for criticizing the favored contributors.

Banned for criticizing? Nah. But if I could, I'd ban you if you couldn't produce something other than your fat mouth backing up the paid shill accusations.

Quote:

Whatever, Daniel Prince John Slash is producing too many words to be other than somebody doing this for a living. About time AppleInsider came clean about this.

As soon as you cop to ranting about things you made up in your head as if they were fact and apologize for accusing people with no proof, I'd say the onus might be on them. Until then, they owe you nothing.

I don't suppose you have any proof of this accusation. I realize that it's par for the course to just throw out unsubstantiated bullshit on forums and call it 'fact', but I'd say more than just your opinion would be in order here. How do you know Daniel isn't simply an Apple user/expert giving his honest opinion on things?

While we're discussing pities, let's discuss the pity that people can declare things about people and make accusations and feel no need to back it up with anything of substance.

Well at least this is opinion and is stated as such.

Banned for criticizing? Nah. But if I could, I'd ban you if you couldn't produce something other than your fat mouth backing up the paid shill accusations.

As soon as you cop to ranting about things you made up in your head as if they were fact and apologize for accusing people with no proof, I'd say the onus might be on them. Until then, they owe you nothing.

It was abundantly clear that my claim was based on "Daniel's" track record as the most prolific Apple apologist/suck-up pseudo "journalist" that this forum or any other except perhaps MacDailyNews has ever witnessed. Show me one of his "articles" that isn't an attack on one of Apple's Enemies du jour, or some overly flattering pump piece that promotes Apple. You can't?

I rest my case.

What astonishes me about your attack on me is that you didn't take the time to consider whether what I wrote might be true. You simply decide it wasn't and went for it. Doesn't that make you wonder about your motives?

If you have the courage of your convictions, then you'll show me where "daniel's" opinions are stated as such. Your claim. I'm waiting.

It was abundantly clear that my claim was based on "Daniel's" track record as the most prolific Apple apologist/suck-up pseudo "journalist" that this forum or any other except perhaps MacDailyNews has ever witnessed. Show me one of his "articles" that isn't an attack on one of Apple's Enemies du jour, or some overly flattering pump piece that promotes Apple. You can't?

I rest my case.

What astonishes me about your attack on me is that you didn't take the time to consider whether what I wrote might be true. You simply decide it wasn't and went for it. Doesn't that make you wonder about your motives?

If you have the courage of your convictions, then you'll show me where "daniel's" opinions are stated as such. Your claim. I'm waiting.

Why should we give any credence to your wild claims, you still haven't proven you didn't or even denied that you helped Glenn Beck murder that girl.

No, I'm curious about your association with Glenn Beck. It goes right to the heart of the matter.

Quote:

You tell me who you work for and I'll tell you who I work for.

Well, you admit to being a paid PR hack, and you're here trying to discredit AI. It's disingenuous of you not to come clean on your motives. It certainly looks like you have something to hide, perhaps some financial gain at stake. You really need to admit to your bias, let us know what positions you have in Apple stock or the stock of competitors. You really need to be honest here and just admit what you are up to.

Readers report that Apple's tech support forums originally confirmed that a iOS 4.0.1 software fix addressing the issue would ship early next week (as early as Monday), before the comments were subsequently taken down along with all the other related discussion about the matter.

WTF!!!?!?!?!! APPLE is worse than the "Dritte Reich" concerning information policy!
"SIEG HEIL HERR JOBS" FUCK YOU APPLE YOU BUNCH OF ASSHOLES!
They fucked the SUPERDRIVE and the WLAN of my old MBP and instead of admitting that they made a fault they just deleted the digital traces by killing discussion threads and removing any information about the defect update files pretending that there never were fatal updates which severely fucked up the firmware of components!

CENSORSHIP is one of the worst things in the world and APPLE you SUCK!